How does Spotify make sense - it seems crazy to me!!

[Tom Hakala]

Originally Posted by steins

I have some minor releases available on both Spotify and iTunes. Here are the numbers for a given period, you decide what is best. BTW, I'm both the artist and record company, so there is no-one besides my digital distributor who gets a cut before I do.

Spotify:
1793 streams = approx. $1

iTunes:
2 complete albums DL, 14 individual songs DL: $21

Stein Tore

But still..

those streams can go for ages and ages. How it will be in a LONG run. After 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? I personally favor the idea of whatever I listen I will give a fragment of a penny to what I'm listening to. Instead of buying an album and after the first spin letting it dust in my collection. In a long run, if the album/song is good I have paid the amount of money I'd have paid for buying the album. I really hope that Spotify could continue getting more paying customers. And more commercials for those not paying for it. That way, I assume, Spotify is able to pay more per stream.

[figgebass]

Originally Posted by Tom Hakala

But still..

those streams can go for ages and ages. How it will be in a LONG run. After 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? I personally favor the idea of whatever I listen I will give a fragment of a penny to what I'm listening to.

Tom....I guess you can multiply, right?
Just take Steins reward for getting 1700+ spins, 1 dollar , and multiply it by whatever number of years you like and you get the answer.....after a hundred years his grand children will collect ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!! WOOO effing HAAA!
I bet you prefer to give a fragment of a penny instead of 20 dollars for an album...I'd prefer giving a fragment of a penny each time I use my car instead of paying 30 000 dollars for it....;-)

Originally Posted by Tom Hakala

I really hope that Spotify could continue getting more paying customers. And more commercials for those not paying for it. That way, I assume, Spotify is able to pay more per stream.

I too wish that Spotify gets many more paying customers BUT then the way of paying the artists will have to change radically cos the kickback (about 1/1700 dollar.....)is just pathetic and is more like a baseball bat in the face....

[figgebass]

Lady Gaga's Poker Face was written by , among others ,Red One and now STIM, the organisation that brings in and pays out money for airplay and performances of songs writes that the first payment from Spotify came this summer and they use Poker Face as an example.
It was streamed 1 000 000 times and for that the rightholders got *drumrollllllllll* about 300 dollars.....to share.....YIIIIIHAAAAAAAA!!!! Spotify really is the future for us writers , that's for sure......

The funny thing is that they compare these one million single "downloads" with it being aired once during a show with a million listeners on the air....and that'd only give the rightholders 15 dollars.....

DE_PRE_SS_ING_!

[Raygun]

Originally Posted by figgebass

Lady Gaga's Poker Face was written by , among others ,Red One and now STIM, the organisation that brings in and pays out money for airplay and performances of songs writes that the first payment from Spotify came this summer and they use Poker Face as an example.
It was streamed 1 000 000 times and for that the rightholders got *drumrollllllllll* about 300 dollars.....to share.....YIIIIIHAAAAAAAA!!!! Spotify really is the future for us writers , that's for sure......

The funny thing is that they compare these one million single "downloads" with it being aired once during a show with a million listeners on the air....and that'd only give the rightholders 15 dollars.....

DE_PRE_SS_ING_!

Sure, that would be a depressing number if this indeed was what the future was about. What's missing in this picture is

A: Payments from the label to the rightholders,
B: This is Sweden only (I think..)
C: This is from Spotify's first period when they neither had a major user base, neither did they have many subscribing customers.

The Premium service is where the action is - Spotify need to get people to subscribe and I think that is taking off now, with all the benefits of the premium service (high quality, offline playlists, iPhone and Android apps) coupled with increasing amount of commercials on the free version. It's certainly going in the right direction, for everyone.

I think it's way too easy to paint everything black based on hearsay and numbers taken out of context. Are theese numbers painting a disastrous picture? Yes, they are. Can we make anything really useful out of it? No, I don't think so.

We NEED to put some belief in theese kinds of services and be aware of what's happening behind the scene.